I like gentoo because it emphasizes the advantages of free software. With portage any software you want can be used. So many other distributions come with so much I don't need I end up fighting the cruft from the beginning. Not so with gentoo.

I definitely agree that the Gentoo community has made a big difference in my personal opiniono of Gentoo. Coming to Gentoo with little or no Linux experience is made possible by this wonderful forum._________________Peace. Love. Gentoo.

I have a friend who seemed to claim that Debian's "portage" system is better or more extensive than that of Gentoo. How should i go about convincing him that this just isn't true?_________________Peace. Love. Gentoo.

Windows: A car with everything welded shut and you can only buy MS Gasoline and MS Oil.
Other Linux Distros: You can run any brand of Gas or Oil but your parts all come from the same company. You can tinker with the engine (compile your own software) but it voids your warranty. It comes with leather seats but they don't match with the rest of the interior.
Gentoo Linux: The car comes to you in pieces and once assembled, you find yourself constantly tuning the carbs, checking exhaust back pressure, tuning mixtures. You can choose any kind of seat covering, but if it is leather, you have to shoot the cow yourself._________________Inspiron 4100 & Sun UltraAXe
Portage on Solaris|Dell Laptop Hacks
The way you feel about organized religion is the same way I feel about organized socialism.

Last edited by stonent on Wed Mar 16, 2005 6:52 am; edited 1 time in total

You can also ask what people in their right minds would codename a distro version "POTATO."
I mean COME ON!_________________iMac G4 1GHz :: q6600 //2x 500GB//2GB RAM//8600GT//Gentoo :: MacBook Pro//2.53GHz

You can also ask what people in their right minds would codename a distro version "POTATO."
I mean COME ON!

It's made by people from countries that think potato is a form of meat._________________Inspiron 4100 & Sun UltraAXe
Portage on Solaris|Dell Laptop Hacks
The way you feel about organized religion is the same way I feel about organized socialism.

Windows: A car with everything welded shut and you can only buy MS Gasoline and MS Oil.
Other Linux Distros: You can run any brand of Gas or Oil but your parts all come from the same company. You can tinker with the engine (compile your own software) but it voids your warranty. It comes with leather seats but they don't match with the rest of the interior.
Gentoo Linux: The car comes to you in pieces and once assembled, you find yourself constantly tuning the carbs, checking exhaust back pressure, tuning mixtures. You can choose any kind of seat covering, but if it is leather, you have to shoot the cow yourself.

Gentoo Linux: The car comes to you in pieces and once assembled, you find yourself constantly tuning the carbs, checking exhaust back pressure, tuning mixtures. You can choose any kind of seat covering, but if it is leather, you have to shoot the cow yourself. But perhaps the car is easier to drive and add new parts._________________iMac G4 1GHz :: q6600 //2x 500GB//2GB RAM//8600GT//Gentoo :: MacBook Pro//2.53GHz

Talking to debian people about my gentoo system is like doing the touch your eye trick with a younger sibling. You can just see their stomach pumping in and out like a sick dog._________________Inspiron 4100 & Sun UltraAXe
Portage on Solaris|Dell Laptop Hacks
The way you feel about organized religion is the same way I feel about organized socialism.

Last edited by stonent on Wed Mar 16, 2005 7:12 am; edited 1 time in total

Debian asks you a million questions, you understand them, but you have no idea what config files it's editing (you can proabably do a manual install, but I don't know how, so it is irrelavent ). With Gentoo, you manually edit the config files you want edited, and the "config helpers" can't fail, becuase there aren't any. Forcing you to manually do stuff also helps you learn how Linux/Unix really works (I went from knowing nothing to knowing pretty much by doing a Gentoo install).

Sometimes it's bad ("AARRRGHHHH!! Automount my thumbdrive, you STUPID gnome-volume-manger thingy!"). But it always turns out well (*insert thumbdrive* *"flash" icon appears* "YAY!! I only spent 3 hours, and I'll never have to waste 30sec with the "mount" command again!")

Mainly because it keeps things far more up-to-date than other distros. I just tried SuSE and Fedora on one of my dad's computers and the most recent version of OpenOffice on both of them was 1.1.3. Then there's all the stuff about choice and control. So simply put, I like Gentoo because Portage rocks._________________Command-line ACCEPT_KEYWORDS is considered harmful, use the package.* files.

Gentoo Linux: The car comes to you in pieces and once assembled, you find yourself constantly tuning the carbs, checking exhaust back pressure, tuning mixtures. You can choose any kind of seat covering, but if it is leather, you have to shoot the cow yourself.

By far the best (modern!) package selection, the package management works well, nice colored boot scripts and all the config files make sense and are pretty easy to learn._________________Interested in E17? Get Enlightened by reading the user guide.